Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Mauritania and Senegal. The second year in a row, First in diesel category, Fourth overall. The rally included such greats as Schlesser, Pelichet, Loomans, Cotel and many more.

Check out our latest pictures of Pharaons Rally 2009.

The applications and fees of Pharaons 2009 are finalized. Like last year, all Egyptian participants in all categories will enjoy very attractive rates specially for the early bookers. Pls find attached the applications with all the details inside. You will find also the new "accompanying people" formula which is tailored for those die-hard fans who want to follow the rally bivouac to bivouac. Of course, these are not assistants and any assistance given to racers by the accompanying people will unfortunetaly lead to the exclusion of the assisted racer.

Anyway, once decided, pls fill the relevant application and send it directly to the ever helpful costanza (costi@jvd.it) and copy to me. The total of your team fees (including any missing names) should be transfered to JVD account in Italy (account attached in application) before the 15th of July for early booking and before the 31st of August for late registration. Unfortuantely, no applications will be accepted after that date. If you are missing a few names in your team, pls send the applications with the names you do have, pay for the full team before your relevant deadline and complete the names by maximum 31st of August.

I hope we will have an impressive representation in this year's edition. Pls let me know if you have any questions and pls forward to all interested.
Best of luck and stay safe.

7000 km, 4 countries, 2 weeks. A very grueling rally with a first participation from the Egyptian team. Third overall and first in their category, a very rewarding result. watch the video here.

The "Africa Race" is one of the toughest rallies spending 12 days in the desert as compared to the "Pharaons Rally" which is 7 days. The ceremony of the "Africa Race" started in Marseille. Then they took a boat to Morocco where the race actaully begins. The root of the race takes place in several countries starting with 6 days in Morocco, 4 in Mauritania, 2 in Senegal, and finally ends in Dakar. There are 12 stages and each stage is approximatley 800km daily. For more information visit http://www.africaracelive.com/.

 

Final update for the race, Mido and Cotel Herve finished 1st in their category and 3rd over all.

Check out our latest pictures of Pharaons Rally 2008. Here is a preview

 

A short promo of the Egyptian team. They won 4th place overall last year and were on their way for a similar result this year until they had an accident the last day and were forced to withdraw from the race.

Pls check my latest adventure. I was honored to be part of that team and we made it. A little different from my beloved rallies but exciting nevertheless and we raised the flag on top. Enjoy and give us your feedback.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnvvpZmrC_E

By the way, Pharaons 2008 is around the corner. Seven Egyptian Teams so far so very proud. http://www.jvd.it/2008/

Just before Pyramids Rally 2008, Abouyoussef partnered with Toyota Egypt for a long term sponsorship. The common goals include promoting Rally Sport in Egypt, improving results in the International rallies held in Egypt and representing Egypt abroad in the major international rallies of the world. Details of the partnership were announced in a press conference on June 22nd, 2008.

A short promo of the team in the last rally. First place overall for the third year in a row. Enjoy the video. We are PROUD!!!

We are proud to announce that our team was able to win the rally des Pyramides 2008 for the third time in a row. This was a precious victory and really a happy event following our troubles in Libya. You can check some photos here, here and here. A very nice video will be posted by the end of the month. We also posted the complete results here.

The Rally des Pyramides 2008 will be held from the 30th of April to the 8th of May.

Our team will be returning to compete again this year hoping to achieve a good standing specially that we were able to clinch first position overall last year after a fierce competition that lasted the entire length of the race. We will try to update the site as we go along.

Check out pictures of the final rally school training trip here.

 

Well we came back from Libya safe and mostly sound. We went, we saw but we definitely did not conquer. This was the Libya Desert Challenge but for us it was the Libya Challenge as we saw little desert. It started well like all things that go terribly wrong. We crossed the border with very little hassle, and drove around 2500 km in 3 days to the proximity of rally base camp. The rally itself was satisfying especially concerning tracks, organization, and technical difficulties. The Libyans we met in the rally were very welcoming and will hopefully come to our Egyptian rallies in the near future. Our team's brief performance was excellent and from the first kms we were well ahead of the pack ensuring us first position overall. But the challenge lay not in the desert portion of this adventure. Our troubles started when our assistance car had a head-on collision with another speeding car coming in the wrong direction on an asphalt liaison. The injured assistants were rushed to the best hospital we could find (which does not say much) and all tests, x-rays and CT scans were made. Thank God there was no danger to their lives but there were a lot of stitches and healing needed. We went back to the hospital to check on our team only to find out that the other car in the accident did not want to drop the lawsuit, even though they were at fault as confirmed by the police report. We then decided to abandon the race for one day, or so we thought, until we made sure the lawsuit was dropped which took a lot of pleading, threatening, pulling strings and only 4 days! By the fifth day, our team was smuggled back to Cairo where a more thorough checkup confirmed their physical well being, the broken cars were loaded on trucks and we were ready to head home. We got back to the camp, packed our things and drove back from close to the Algerian border non stop for 2700 km until we hit Cairo. At the end, Master William tells us that All’s Well that Ends Well. We are all home and that is all that matters. As far as Libya is concerned, the dunes there are very different. I am not talking about their twisted sense of humor but technically speaking, they are very complex and very high but not as soft as our sand sea. A return visit is a must but a recovery time is needed first. In the mean time, I will be looking for some good karma to offer these Libyan sands in order for them to accept us less painfully next time.
The Sand Sea Sailors Team